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Safety concerns at Quinte Secondary

Jason Miller/The Intelligencer
A student, pictured here on the right, is told he can't submit an English assignment due to shelter in place measures being in effect at Quinte Secondary School Thursday morning.

A student, attempting to drop off his English assignment, was denied entry to Quinte Secondary School Thursday morning due to shelter-in-place security precautions being initiated after a suspicious individual was spotted nearby.
The student, who didn’t give his name, was turned away when he arrived at the front doors of the school around 10:30 a.m. He was not given any specific reason other than ongoing safety measures prohibited entry at the time.
“I drive all the way to town and I can’t even drop off my (adult learning) booklet,” he said, adding that he was told entry may be granted soon, but no exact timeframe was provided. “They just said soon, hopefully.”
Board officials confirmed the precautions were lifted at 11:15 a.m., and things were back to normal at the school.
Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board director of communications, Kerry Donnell, said classes were continuing as usual but shelter in place measures were triggered due to the suspicious behaviour of an individual spotted in the vicinity of the College Street high school at around 8:30 a.m.
“Shelter-in-place is the lowest level of emergency response,” she said. “During shelter-in-place everyone stays in the school, but normal classroom and school activities occur. It was initiated because an individual potentially being in the vicinity of the school and, as a precaution, police were called and they’re now working with the school leaders.”
No one was harmed. Two cruisers were parked outside the school when The Intelligencer arrived around 10:20 a.m.
An officer posted at the police station duty desk confirmed officers were at the scene but the situation was not deemed to be serious.
“We’re doing an investigation, but there is no sense of urgency or anything to it at this point in time,” he said.